Hockey says retirement age to rise to 70
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Work longer ... Treasurer Joe Hockey says the retirement age will increase to 70 in 2035.Source: News Corp Australia

AUSTRALIA’S pension entitlement age will rise to 70 from 2035, almost 20 years earlier than the Commission of Audit recommended, Joe Hockey has announced.

The Treasurer today confirmed the Government intends to raise the working age during a speech in Melbourne to the Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce, saying Australia needed people to stay in the workforce.

“I want you to understand — and some of you won’t be around then, probably me - this is what long-term planning is about, the long-term sustainability of our system,” Mr Hockey said.

“We’ve got to embrace senior Australians participating at work.”.

Mr Hockey assured seniors “if you are 65 today, you are not going to lose yor pension”, adding “what we are going to do is deliver a fairer system.”

“The aged pension expenditure today is currently more than we spend on Defence.

“It’s rising to $72 billion rapidly.”

The qualifying age for the Age Pension is currently 65 and will rise to 67 by 2023.

The Commission of Audit, released yesterday, recommended the qualifying age be linked to life expectancy and increase to 70 by 2053.

It also recommended sweeping changes to income and assets tests, including the inclusion of the family home, which would make it tougher for people to access full or part payments.

The Government is unlikely to accept the inclusion of the family home.

Mr Hockey also gave another indication the government will introduce a GP co-payment in the upcoming budget and clamp down on welfare handouts.

“Government services are somehow deemed to be magically free but of course they’re not free. They are paid for by the taxpayer,” he said.

“So asking those who use government services to at least make some contribution to their delivery seems a logical and equitable step.”

There is no such thing as a free visit to a doctor or free welfare, he said.

“Sooner or later, everyone that receives a benefit or a payment pays a price through the tax system.”

The Treasurer said, where appropriate, the government needs to send price signals, so that “everyone understands that everything we use in our community comes at a cost”.

Earlier, Bill Shorten has slammed the government’s pension decision, saying it is another “broken promise”.

“We don’t believe the way to get the budget doing better is by attacking the vulnerable, the poor and the sick,” he told reporters in Melbourne.

Shadow Families Minister Jenny Macklin, alongside the Opposition Leader, told reporters in Melbourne the Government should now reveal any other changes it plans to make proposed by the Commission of Audit yesterday.

“So Tony Abbott and Joe Hockey are saying to Australian pensioners that you’re going to have to work longer, no matter what the promise was they made before the election,” she said.

“Now that Joe Hockey has come out and confirmed that he is going to put up the age pension age, he should also make clear what other changes he is going to make as a result of the Commission of Audit.”

Australians react on Twitter:

so @JoeHockey is going to announce increasing the retirement age to 70 for everyone born after 1965, the year he was born! #auspol#coa

Comments on this story

Mischa of QLD Posted at 10:57 PM May 02, 2014

When I started working,at 15, women didn't get paid a fair wage, it was a small percentage of what men got. Not having super, or investments, wasn't because you were stupid, but because what you earned barely covered the bills. I've worked hard for the past 40 years. I have super now but it's not going to be enough to retire on,. I have no choice but to be on a govt. pension when I retire. Aged pensioners should not be thought of a a burden.

John of Nakara Posted at 8:58 PM May 02, 2014

Politicians are clever enough to call their own benefits "Superannuation" now, instead of a "Pension" so that they aren't caught by this. Disgusting.

Cassandra Frampton of Darwin Posted at 5:34 PM May 02, 2014

Let's be fair about this! If we are expected to work until 70 then why shouldn't all the politicians have to work til they're 70 BEFORE being entitled to their very generous golden handshakes. If it's good for the goose.....